Since 1996, death sentences in America have declined more than 60 percent, reversing a generation-long trend toward greater acceptance of capital punishment. In theory, most Americans continue to support the death penalty. But it is no longer seen as a theoretical matter. Prosecutors, judges, and juries across the country have moved in large numbers to give much

Overview

Since 1996, death sentences in America have declined more than 60 percent, reversing a generation-long trend toward greater acceptance of capital punishment. In theory, most Americans continue to support the death penalty. But it is no longer seen as a theoretical matter. Prosecutors, judges, and juries across the country have moved in large numbers to give much greater credence to the possibility of mistakes  mistakes that in this arena are potentially fatal. The discovery of innocence, documented here through painstaking analyses of media coverage and with newly developed methods, has led to historic shifts in public opinion and to a sharp decline in use of the death penalty by juries across the country. A social cascade, starting with legal clinics and innocence projects, has snowballed into a national phenomenon that may spell the end of the death penalty in America.

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Table of Contents

List of Tables viiList of Figures ixAcknowledgments xiiiInnocence and the Death Penalty Debate 1The Death Penalty in America 23A Chronology of Innocence 49The Shifting Terms of Debate 102Innocence, Resonance, and Old Arguments Made New Again 136Public Opinion 166The Rise and Fall of a Public Policy 200Conclusion 216Epilogue: Individuals Exonerated from Death Row 231New York Times Capital Punishment Coverage, 1960 to 2005 243Description of Data 252Notes 265References 275Index 285